Today’s Top Ecommerce News

Gap closes the gap between e-commerce and stores(Internet Retailer)“The ongoing blurring of the line between stores and ecommerce emerged as one of the main themes this week in Gap’s 2014 investor day presentations to Wall Street analysts. The anticipated moves for the coming year build upon the steps Gap has already taken to further bind its store-, web- and mobile-based retail initiatives, and to continue its ecommerce revenue growth—Gap’s online sales increased 21.5% year over year in fiscal 2013, which ended Feb. 1, 2014.”

Mining Reviews for SEO Benefit(Practical Ecommerce)“Customer reviews are an excellent way to inject unique content into your site to benefit search engine optimization while boosting shopper confidence at the same time. For SEO, reviews fall under the generally beneficial category of user generated content. Because UGC comes from consumers, it’s written in their language instead of the marketing-speak we tend to let slip into web copy.”

Five ways listening to social data can help your business(eConsultancy)“If you’re only listening to what people say about you (selective hearing) then you’re only scratching the surface of the value that social data can provide. Knowing what people think of you can be interesting, but as a marketer that will rarely affect how you deliver the campaign in front of you. However, knowing what websites your customers really like, or what videos they shared, or what TV shows they watch is likely to be more valuable.”